Bhatura is an inseparable member of famous Punjabi Chole Bhature and is one of the most eaten breakfast dish in North India. There is something about them which always tempts us to have at least one plate when we go out shopping.

We are making these crispy Bhatura with Yeast and would use soda water too. Some people make Bhatura with Eno too but we do not prefer that method.

Bhatura without Yeast: Using Yeast and soda water helps ferment the dough faster. If you skip these two ingredients, you would need to double up the fermentation time.

If you have ever tried making Bhatura at home, you would have certainly felt some difference with the one you might have tasted in a restaurant somewhere in Delhi Pahar Ganj, or Chacha Bhatura in Kamla Nagar or Haldiram.
Haven't you got water in your mouth with just thinking about those pictures?

In simple terms, Bhatura bread is nothing but a fried flat-bread served with Chickpea curry.

There is a secret for making the Black chole or Black Chana as well. There are commonly two ways (using tea leaves or Amla) of making the Black chole to go with Bhatura. We explore both ways of making black chole here separately.

We have divided the whole Chhole Bhature recipe in two parts to keep each part short and manageable. This article talks about Bhatura.

Instructions

Making the dough Prep Time – 5 minutes

If you are not using yeast, skip this step. First of all, take a small bowl. Add Yeast and dissolve it in 3 tsp of warm water.

Mixing bhatura ingredients

Now take a big bowl and add All Purpose Flour, Semolina, Salt, Sugar, baking Powder and Curd.

Knead Bhatura dough

Add diluted Yeast from step 1 and mix well with hands. Skip this step if you are not using Yeast.

Once mixed, add Oil and mix well again.

Add Soda water or plain water and sugar, if you are not using soda water gradually and keep kneading to make a smooth dough. Smooth and fluffy dough will be ready in about 4-5 minutes.

Once dough is ready, cover it with a cotton cloth.

Fermentation of dough Prep Time – 1 Hour

Keep aside the dough for 1 hour. This will help in fermentation of this dough and is required to make fluffy Bhatura.

Fermented bhatura dough

After 1 hour, the dough would have fermented and you would see an increase in its volume. This fluffy dough is now ready to make Bhatura.

Frying the Bhatura Cook Time - 5 minutes

Add Oil in a frying pan to deep fry the Bhature. The pan should be filled 40% with Oil. Heat it on high flame. It would take about 3 minutes to reach a good level of hotness.

Deep frying bhatura

Now, take small 3 Inch in diameter portion of dough. Roll it with your both hand palms to give it a round ball shape.

Dip this ball’s 10% portion in Oil and flatten it with rolling pin. Flattening with rolling pin might be a bit difficult if you are new to rolling. Maida would contract pretty fast while rolling. There is no need to worry, it would flatten after couple of runs.

You can give it an Oval shape like the one you see in market or a round circle shape if this sounds easy.

By this time, Oil would have reached a good hotness level. Note that if the Oil is not hot, the Bhatura would simply fry with hard surface and would taste bad.

Add this flattened Bhatura in hot Oil for frying and be careful while dropping it to avoid any Oil spills.

Press the corners of Bhatura with spatula to help it fluff from center.

Flip and fry from other side too until it gets light golden brown color from both the sides.

Once you see the light brown shade, remove it from the Oil.

Crispy Bhatura is ready to serve hot and fresh. You can fry more of them in a similar fashion. Enjoy.

Fluffy Bhatura

Bhatura with black chana

Authentic bhatura recipe

Bhatura from chole bhature

Storage and Serving Suggestions

Bhatura tastes best when it is out fresh and hot from the frying pan. Since, it is made with All-purpose-flour Or refined Flour or Maida, it tends to get hard if stored in refrigerator or even at room temperature.

You can certainly refrigerate it for 2-3 days and eat after heating it in Microwave or re-frying. Although re-frying is a method of re-heating the Bhatura, but we do not recommend as it may spoil the taste. Microwave would be a better option for re-heating.

Bhatura is best enjoyed with Punjabi Chole. There is simply no other match if you want to taste the real fun.

Bhatura vs Poori? What's the difference?

Good question. Although, both bhatura and poori are fried Indian breads, the basic difference is the primary ingredient i.e. Maida. The former is made with All-purpose-flour (or refined wheat flour) whereas the latter is made with wheat flour (read whole wheat flour).

The other point of difference is the fermentation process. We do not need any fermentation while making a Poori.

There is no reason that one should be considered better than other with respect to health. Both are fried and have high calories. A 5 inch diameter single Bhatura can easily carry about 250 calories and a similar sized Poori would have about 200.